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"The simple way to a leaner, stronger, greener lifestyle. "The greatest thing we can do in life is to be a beacon for positive change. Show how amazing we can be!"." - Jon Hinds, Founder Monkey Bar Gym

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Monkey Bar Gym Chicago 60 Day Fitness Challengers testing during their introductory week!!
Man this is a good group of folks here:) They're training super hard and already learning MBG 3 really well!! It's always so cool to see the heart people have to drive hard, to make positive change!
Well that is happening in spades here:) hahaToday for us was a very busy day as well, lots of work on Lifeline stuff, taught 4 classes today and had a long MBG Chicago meeting and then did about 3 hours of online work:) looong day!
Has to be done though:) This is what we expected and now it is upon us:) So it's important for us to pay alot of attention to making sure we do not over do the workouts ourselves, to make sure we eat great, and to make sure we get plenty of sleep. We're doing our best on all 3:)MBG 1 restoration - taught the Eischens Yoga in class today and led it in 2 more classes and took a little snooze (5 minute power nap) on the yoga floor too:) hahaMBG 2 training - di…

Here is a quick intro video of Monkey Bar Gym Chicago:) Man i can feel the energy rising everyday!
Now with my boy Luiz Claudio joining us...Man it is off the hook bad ass!!
Each day we're getting tons of great folks coming in and learning tons of skills and technique for both our MBG fitness training and LCCT (Luiz Claudio Combat Team) training as well!In our MBG classes each day we're really teaching alot of the stuff we do so well...Running, Jumping, Crawling and Climbing techniques as part of the warm up and then making those hard core for the workout:) Today we did handstand, kick up to handstands and then walking on their hands alternating with alot of simple to complex bar movements...a little side to sides, in/outs, bicycle up and downs:) all the good stuff!! Then we trained!!For LCCT, man it is going great too, Luiz is the best BJJ instructor around, he's off the charts good and teaches with a ton of passion...man this is awesome to be together with him and i can …

This morning i got to sleep in and got a good 8 hours of sleep:) been working hard each day and it is good to see the folks enjoying the classes and now the brazilian jiu-jitsu too! Today in class we were training handstands and some bar work....man it is so simple and brings such happiness to folks it is really cool to see:) For example today, after training...luiz, mark (cool dude who is also a badass in muay thai) and i worked out as well...man we had a great workout...mark and luiz both super strong at body weight did muscle ups on the bars using the Pull Up Revolution (PUR) and man they loved it! They both got it immediately and were doing sets of 6 with the PUR immediately! Then we used the Body X-treme Trainer (BXT) and we did some assisted planche push ups and they loved those immediately too:) To me this is just a blast, cause we're training dope movement skills!!:)MBG 1 restoration - did a bit of Eischens Yoga after the noon classMBG 2 training - PUR muscle ups & BX…

Today was a super busy day, jess and i were up for the 6am class, then worked, then trained BJJ with my good buddy Luiz Claudio who moved from Rio to teach here at the MBG!! Then i trained, then pretty much worked and had meetings the rest of the day til teaching again at 5pm and then teaching the 60 day fitness challenge at 6pm tonight! Man this is a busy day:)
Luiz is amazing! his technique is simple flawless and combined with his fluidity makes for a true master of brazilian jiu-jitsu...man we're very lucky to have him here at MBG Chicago. 10 years ago when i opened up my first Monkey Bar Gym in madison wisconsin he had just begun teaching brazilian jiu-jitsu...we trained at rickson gracie's academy on west pico blvd in west LA together (he was a purple and i was a white belt back in 95' when we met and we became good friends then and re-united again when i flew back to LA for rickson's championships at the UCLA campus in 2000. His team from Rio dominated, i was tea…

Here's a quick video at MBG Chicago showing you all how to do an assisted full Muscle Up using
the Jungle Gym XT (the most wicked suspension trainer out!!!...okay i'm a bit biased:) haha
We're putting this exercise into the mix next month for sure so get your JGXT and get ready!Friday at the Monkey Bar Gym Chicago was our best day yet! Had a whole bunch of people come by from all over chicago to take a class or do some Eischens Yoga with us or just to hang out:) We had a BLAST!!! The energy here at MBG Chi is off the hook already and we're loving it:) The super cool
Ladies of Lululemon came by almost everyday this week and that was a treat as they are full of positive energy!! We're already getting crews who train at certain times and man that is fun as heck!! It's sort of like the Cheers of Fitness as one member told us:) But in a healthy way:) hahaToday we're going to Rush Street Lululemon and Jessica and Erin are going to be telling folks about what the …

today started early and ended late and it was a great first day!! the classes went great,
the students dug it big time and we had alot of great training and lots of fun!
The picture above shows them doing some Eischens Yoga during the warm up and
for jess and i that is another big bonus for us:) we do EY in each class so her and i get to
do Eischens Yoga 2-3 times a day!! hey hey hey:) body feels really good despite massive
jet lag and little sleep!!
listened to my body big time today and kept my own training pretty easy today.MBG 1 restoration - Eischens Yoga beginner sequence at 12, 5 and 6...feels great!!!MBG 2 training - did one of my favorites....press ups alternated with cliffhanger crawls. we put two Cliffhanger bar set ups next to each other here in mbg chicago, they're about 50% longer than mbg madison and made really really high level...awesome!! after doing about 4 series of these two then played around some with 1 arm handstand holds with one of our new students who is…

Hey hey hey!!!! MBG Chicago is opening at 6am tomorrow morning!! Man this day is finally coming:) Alot of work, still got alot to do....but we're opening. Jess and i just got back last night after 36 hours of traveling:) haha man that was a long trip:) and that is after getting a quicker flight from sydney to LA....would of had a 10 hour layover otherwise....dang!!! haha
So tomorrow we open...we will be teaching MBG 3:)
I'm getting back to my own training as when i teach intensives (six 9 hour days in a row) i usually do not train beyond the course...so i'll begin tomorrow again and so will begin blogging again.
when traveling it is really interesting, the stress of flying so far...planes are big time stressors...so i usually really load up on the green drinks, chorella and water, fruit and more water.
being in a super super hot environment....got to respect it and the flying...here i learned a tough lesson:) haha i went and trained right after getting there and of course …

today we spent the first 3 hours of the course teaching our Eischens Yoga, then spent all afternoon basically showing and playing on the Jungle Gym XT, The BXT (body x-treme trainer) and the PUR (pull up revolution)....man we had a blast....got to say that was one of the funnest days of teaching and playing we've ever had at a course...they loved the simplicity of the movements, doing tons of stuff they'd never done before and then mixing it up big time...flowing with music, doing crazy movements and having a blast.
The Jungle Gym i'd have to say the fun stuff is doing things like assisted muscle ups...super slow feels just like a regular muscle up...then PUR muscle ups...then BXT planche push ups, handstands and press ups.
got to say when i asked them to go for it and get way outside the box of traditional movement the aussies did not fail!!:) haha
besides teaching for 9 hours straight for 6 days straight this week i'm not really doing much else besides chillin like …

hey my friends, man it's hot here:) alot is happening here if you've seen the storm coming to hit the east coast. Level 5 hurricane, pretty scary stuff, the folks on the east coast are very scared and it's the only thing on the news...going to hit tonight and tomorrow am.
since arriving we've been enjoying Darwin and trained with Paul Fogg yesterday, what a nice guy! If you all can ever make it here you got to look him up!! we did a crushing leg workout yesterday that literally wiped me out for today:) i mean wiped out:) haha, well not soo funny, i'm hurting:) the heat, the jet lag, and the hard workout...= 1 very tired jon:) so just messed around on todays workout and that was still too much...so i'm chillin' this afternoon to rest up for tomorrow...first of six 9 hour days:)
yesterday paul and paul junior (big pauls assistant trainer) all trained.
5 minutes of each section
Power Jumper + 120lb (2 reds) for 50 jumps to touch a 9'6" ceiling...thi…